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Match-up #42 - Flamenco Vs. Blow At High Dough
I ask you to listen to the two songs in the match-up Back to Back, and consider the lyrics of the song. Feel free to post an unbiased analysis of both songs in this thread, but please refrain from cheerleading or making predictions for your favourites.

Concert Review: The Tragically Hip - Cleveland, OH, April 14, 2007
Written by Peter Chakerian
Published April 19, 2007



People who live in the Great Lakes region of the United States are often treated to spectacular performances by the Tragically Hip – gigs that the rest of North America simply doesn’t get to experience. Living here, you could almost take it for granted: often Hip shows go longer, jam harder, and flood speakers and venues with rarities and darker, more brooding grooves than just about anywhere else.

By and large, it’s because the alt-rock fivesome from Kingston, Ontario grew up with Great Lakes lore and allegory, and because they perform in arenas across their homeland, they can count on ardent devotees to “pull a roadie” to see them in smaller U.S. venues in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Toledo, Erie, and Rochester. Such was the case at the House of Blues in Cleveland last Saturday night, where the ratio of Canucks to Clevelanders in the hall had to be at least 4-1.

And the show? Sold out. Manic. Enigmatic. Inspired and nearly flawless. One for the ages. The bedlam in the audience seemed only to fuel the band even more, as they continued to top themselves over and over again. It might have been their best live show ever.

Decked out in a black Sandinista outfit, singer/guitarist Gord Downie careened about the stage in paroxysms – like a marionette with snarled strings – embodying the characters and scenes from the Hip's catalog. To that end, guitarists Bobby Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay kept the noir soundtrack’s pace quirky, bluesy, direct and ever-metronomic. Downie himself also offered up some perfectly timed, stream-of-consciousness spoken word ranting that fans have come to expect in shows.

The 150-minute set supported the Hip’s new World Container album well enough, but this was not a run of the mill promo. It was a very special night of music. World Container highlights “In View” and “Lonely End of the Rink” were among the best; they only served to accentuate a set list seemingly themed by one of their biggest classics, “Nautical Disaster.” Downie and the Hip didn't just play a show in Cleveland on this flurry-laden Saturday – they played a show for Cleveland, commemorating the dark history surrounding this one-time Lake Erie metropolis and surrounding region.

Beyond playing many rarities with subtle references (“Last of the Unplucked Gems,” “Emperor Penguin” and “Blow at High Dough”) their direct mentions of the region touched the very core of the audience. The Hip delivered exquisitely with Phantom Power’s “Chagrin Falls,” Day For Night’s “Daredevil” and two gigantic covers – Randy Newman’s ode to a flaming Cuyahoga called “Burn On Big River” and an edgy-but-precise take on Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – certainly the worst “Nautical Disaster” in Lake Erie memory. Incredible.

Some of their biggest hits – “Bobcaygeon,” “Ahead By a Century,” “Gift Shop” and “At the Hundredth Meridian” – rounded out the show. By the end of the night, fans across the venue were coordinating who would buy tickets for the “By Popular Demand” second Cleveland date in May – announced just prior to showtime – and who would be driving. They’ve got less than 30 days to top themselves. I can’t even begin to imagine they could... but after last Saturday night, I'm dying to find out.

I'm picking up tickets on Friday.

Just sent SRB a box of Hip vhs that hasn't seen the light of day in almost ten years. Here's hoping some rare gems start to make the rounds this spring...

Will update this further in the near future...

Match-up #41 - New Orleans Is Sinking Vs. The Darkest One
I ask you to listen to the two songs in the match-up Back to Back, and consider the lyrics of the song. Feel free to post an unbiased analysis of both songs in this thread, but please refrain from cheerleading or making predictions for your favourites.
*There is approximately 3 hours remaining in Match up #40. If you haven't voted in that match up, please do so.

Match-up #40 - Poets Vs. Gift Shop
I ask you to listen to the two songs in the match-up Back to Back, and consider the lyrics of the song. Feel free to post an unbiased analysis of both songs in this thread, but please refrain from cheerleading or making predictions for your favourites.

Most of you have probably heard about Facebook by now. The ever popular "holy shit, I haven't seen you in 15 years...how you been" website. I typed in Tragically Hip to see if any groups had been formed and came accross this group for people who hate the Tragically Hip. Have a look at the message by this guy...I guess everyone's entitled to his or her opinion.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2352387742&topic=2090">http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2 ... topic=2090</a><!-- m -->
[/url]

We're making a documentary for Global TV about Hip tributes. We're looking for a band that is starting, or thinking of starting, a Hip tribute band to participate in the project this spring. If this applies to your band, please contact me: <!-- e --><a href="mailtoarah@goodcompanypictures.com">sarah@goodcompanypictures.com</a><!-- e -->
Thanks.

Hi, we're making a documentary for Global TV about Hip tribute bands. We're looking for a band that is starting or thinking of starting a Hip tribute to be part of the project this spring. If this is something you're up to, no matter where you are based, please contact me at <!-- e --><a href="mailtoarah@goodcompanypictures.com">sarah@goodcompanypictures.com</a><!-- e -->
Thanks!

Anyone celebrate this day?

Tragically Hip returns for two sold-out shows

Published: Monday, April 16, 2007
By Brent Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer

Why is it, Gord Sinclair, that The Tragically Hip is so popular around these parts?

“It’s a credit to the good taste of the people of Burlington,” according to the band’s bass player. That was his half-joking response. His serious answer attributes the Canadian rock band’s tendency to play sold-out shows in Vermont — as it’s doing tonight and Tuesday at Higher Ground — to a mix of geography and adventurousness.

The geography relates to the band’s roots in Kingston, Ontario, which, Sinclair pointed out, is about 20 kilometers (that’s a little more than a dozen miles to us metrically challenged Americans) from Watertown, N.Y., placing The Tragically Hip’s home base closer to a host of U.S. burgs than to Canadian cities such as Vancouver. When the band’s vocalist, Gordon Downie, sings about intrigue on the ice on “The Lonely End of the Rink” from the new Hip album “World Container,” fans in hockey-absorbed communities like Burlington just nod at their neighbors to the north and say, “I hear ya.”

Sinclair, speaking recently by phone during a tour stop in Seattle, also suspects the Vermont way of thinking has something to do with his band being a consistently big draw here. “Generally speaking, people in your neck of the woods are more open-minded to things that are not from America,” he said, nothing that local fans also seem more accepting of music that’s not spoon-fed to them by radio. “We’ve never had the benefit of a stateside single. With a group like ours, all you have to do is get us in front of people.”

That live show Sinclair referred to is The Tragically Hip’s trademark. Downie’s dervish-like persona and the band’s musical intensity in a live setting are legendary, even if they haven’t always transferred that power into the studio.

They come close with “World Container,” the 12th Tragically Hip album. The band leaned on producer Bob Rock, known for his work with hard rockers Metallica and Motley Crue and not so much with anthemic pop-rockers like The Tragically Hip.

“What he brought to us was a real focus on each individual song,” according to Sinclair. Rock helped refine the arrangement of “The Lonely End of the Rink,” Sinclair said, turning the track into a Who/U2/Midnight Oil-styled rampage that’s one of the disc’s highlights. His contributions weren’t all about frenzied moments, though; Sinclair said Rock also steered the band toward an elegant piano texture on the track “Pretend.”

“He just has a really focused ear,” Sinclair said. “He became the ersatz sixth member of the group.”

Speaking of The Who, an obvious influence on the band, The Tragically Hip recently played several opening dates for the legendary British rockers. The Tragically Hip has been around more than 20 years and the band members are in their 40s, but they still feel a rush of teenage hero worship around Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.

“It’s impossible to divorce yourself from when you’re 15 years old,” Sinclair said. “We grew up with that group.

“Opportunities like that make you a better band. You have to get up and you have to entertain these rabid Who fans,” according to Sinclair. “In terms of a dream come true, that’s right up there.”

The Tragically Hip might be aiming toward a little of their own Who-like longevity. It’s already rare for a band to have the same five members it started out with more than two decades earlier. Sinclair said there are moments when they get together after time away and find themselves saying, “How can we do this again?” Yet they always manage.

“We’ve grown up together, put the band together as young men doing this. It’s based around our friendship and the bond we have as a group. It’s a collective experience, a shared experience,” Sinclair said.

“It is a lifelong bond.”

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or <!-- e --><a href="mailto:bhallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com">bhallenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com</a><!-- e -->